EU BEACON One Health Education COST CA24106 action, funded until Oct. 2029 by this Science and Technology Coordination program. Founded back in 2021 as a space medicine network to bring down to Earth all needed new developments, now building and fostering educational and health technologies and methodologies required for our peaceful coexistence, establishing action-research consortia while broadening the full scope of our goals to completion, on all ongoing objectives, until achieving success.
The current challenges and opportunities require the best of us all. Students today face an era defined by unprecedented global challenges, know to all: climate change, geopolitical instability, deepening inequalities, poverty, and shifting demographics.
It is much worse still, and the disconnect keeps that ongoing: chattel slavery, child prostitution, genocides, entire biospheres' collapse. These global, planetary, obvious international and undeniably interconnected urgent issues, affect us all: both their local populations and environments, and the wider world next generations are set to inherit. Traditional education systems increasingly struggle to equip students with the skills, knowledge, and global perspectives necessary to navigate these complexities. There is an urgent need for a new educational paradigm that goes beyond academic excellence, focusing on social responsibility, peace-building, conflict resolution, poverty eradication, and health equity. To be stewards of the globe.
This must enable students to engage with local and global determinants of health, economic disparity, and environmental sustainability. Importantly, it must empower students to contribute actively to solving these challenges. Middle school is a critical developmental stage for younger students, where they cultivate critical thinking, problem-solving skills, and a broader awareness of global issues. This period of cognitive and social development makes them particularly receptive to interdisciplinary frameworks like One Health, which emphasizes human, animal, and environmental health linked as it always is, contextualized on the ongoing calamities. It is a theoretical turn, as these conflicts weaken to disease and death, force lives into miseries beyond all acceptable.
The mindset shift and enabling resources are crucial for helping students understand and address challenges related to health equity, environmental sustainability, and social justice. Education nowadays often lacks the integration of One Health principles, technological access for all students, and the emphasis on global collaboration needed to tackle the pressing issues of today's world. Moreover, the widening digital divide prevents equitable access to educational technologies, leaving underserved regions at a disadvantage. Despite major strides in advancing the state of the art in capabilities and know-how, the need for implementation in educational settings remains unfulfilled. The emphasis on collaborative problem-solving empowers students to become proactive global citizens equipped to navigate the interconnected challenges of health, environment, and society.
